AUTHENTIC SAFARIS & PERSONALIZED TOURS IN TARANGIRE WITH AFRICANMECCA

On a Tanzanian experiential vacation in Tarangire, you can interact with local communities, learning about cultural and historical traditions, helping with local schools and development projects, visiting towns, villages, farms and small industries. You can dance and sing with Maasai warriors, or trek with them through the bush to search out cave painting sites. Swim, or have a relaxing herbal massage. Set out on a bush walk. You can at a safe, non-intrusive distance, view giraffe, buffalo, elephant, zebra, impala and even lion and more, accompanied by a skilled, armed ranger and your walking guide.

Bush walks can take couple hours, half a day or even couple of days if you are hardy enough to enjoy a fly-camping bush walk expedition. You can breakfast or picnic in the bush, enjoy bush sundowners or a romantic bush dinner of traditional Tanzanian dishes prepared in an outback kitchen. Try an early morning take-off in a Tarangire hot-air balloon, floating soundlessly above the treetops for a unique perspective on herds of elephant, unmoved by your presence, and zebra, spooked by your looming shadow.



Soar into the sunrise to see the Great Rift Valley highlands, pink in the morning light, or drift over jade swamps speckled with water-birds. The most popular tour activity in Tarangire is the game drive with your expert and experienced AfricanMecca guide, in comfortable, custom-built 4WD vehicle, with all-round viewing – open sided or pop-up roof, two-way radio for current and reciprocal information on insider game tracks and sightings, and on-board refreshments.

You will see ungulates, rare as the Bohor reedbuck, or unusual as dry-land oryx, long-necked gerenuk and smaller rare mammals such as Banded mongoose and Cape hare, as well as lions, leopards, cheetahs, wildebeests, zebras to primates such monkeys and baboons. There are no rhinos in the Tarangire as they have been poached to extinction in this park few decades ago for their horns though you can see them in Ngorongoro Crater and with proper luck in Serengeti.



Plans for reintroductions in Tarangire are unknown but would be welcomed by AfricanMecca. Always let your guide go first into any new situation. A hollow baobab tree, such as the massive Poachers’ Hide, where primitive beekeepers kept their hives, yesteryear poachers hid and hunters sheltered before conservation was enforced, but today, may be the lair of a leopard, or at least a nocturnal Verreaux's Eagle Owl with four-feet wing span, a light sleeper that wakens instantly to swoop in defiance at any intruder. Bat-eared foxes, hyena cubs and bats have all been encountered there.

Northern Tanzania birding is an immense pleasure in Tarangire, with five species of gigantic raptors, three kinds of vultures, outsize ostriches, ponderous Kori bustards, and tiny weavers, bee-eaters, sunbirds and kingfishers, some of the smallest, brightest, and most beautiful birds in the world. Outside the national park boundaries, night drives give opportunities to spot many nocturnal animals, particularly Small-eared galago, Senegal bushbaby and Crested porcupine, as well as common White-tailed mongoose and rarer civet. Some licenses have been issued for night drives from trusted camp sites within the park.